USA's Alex Deibold skis way to snowboardcross medal

Feb. 19, 2014
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Alex Deibold (USA) reacts during the quarterfinal run of the men's snowboardcross during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park on Tuesday. / John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

by Lindsay H. Jones, USA TODAY Sports

by Lindsay H. Jones, USA TODAY Sports

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia -- How many American snowboarders did you know before these Olympic Games began?

There had to have been Shaun White, of course, the world's most famous extreme sports athlete with unrivaled crossover appeal, and you probably remember Kelly Clark, the 2002 gold medalist who was here in Sochi at age 30 to compete in her fourth Games. You might have recalled Lindsey Jacobellis, too, perhaps more for her failure to win gold than for her non-Olympics snowboardcross domination.

The major snowboarding events are now history, and not many of the American medal favorites are returning home with a medal.

Here at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, home to the slopestyle and the halfpipe and snowboardcross events, it was all about the American underdog.

Alex Deibold wasn't among the favorites to win a medal here in Tuesday's snowboardcross final, yet he was the only American to advance to the final and the only American with a flag draped around his shoulders as he stood on the podium after his third-place finish.

Top contenders Nate Holland and Nick Baumgartner, veteran Olympians, both failed to advance out of the 1/8 finals, the first heat held on a cold and rainy morning in the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.

France's Pierre Vaultier won gold, and Russia's Nikolay Olyunin won silver. American Trevor Jacob, 20, finished ninth after riding most of his last two runs after hearing what he described as a pop in his ankle. He believes the ligaments are torn.

But even missing the finals didn't ruin the day for those three Americans, as they dogpiled on Deibold after the 27-year-old Vermont native slid across the finish line in third place. His teammates understood just what Deibold had endured to even make the Olympic team, let alone find his way upon the podium.

Deibold truly was the underdog among them.

Deibold hasn't been the fastest rider on the American team, and he certainly was not the most decorated in World Cup or X Games competition. He wasn't even officially on America's A Team - the top tier of riders who receive the most financial support from U.S. Snowboarding - until he won his medal here.

He was at the last Olympics in Vancouver but was only there to work as a wax technician, putting in long hours to get the snowboards ready for the four men who did make the Olympic team that he had narrowly missed out upon.

In the four years since, Deibold has continued to race on the World Cup circuit in hopes of making this Olympic team in Sochi. He worked multiple jobs and long hours in the summer to pay for a snowboarding career without the backing of a major sponsor.

"I love snowboarding because it's my passion and something I've always enjoyed. There have definitely been times where I doubted where I'm at - at the end of the season when you're broke and trying to figure out how to pay rent and figuring all that out. But I've never done it for the money," Deibold said. "To do something I love every day, is a really fortunate thing for me. I know how lucky I am to be here."

Deibold joins unheralded medalists like Sage Kotsenberg, who won gold in slopestyle on the first full day of the Games, and women's halfpipe champion Kaitlyn Farrington, who even after beating the previous three Olympic champions (including Clark, who won bronze), admitting she never expected any sort of medal, let alone a gold one.

"I think it's the depth of the American program. We have so many talented people so if you're here, you're definitely one of the best in the world," said Baumgartner, who finished 25h. "I think it gives all these kids out here that message of 'Hey, you have a chance.' Don't worry if there are people out there that are dominating the sport, you can come in and give it your all and come out with a result. Just get on the [US] team, and anything can happen."

Kotsenberg, the first medalist of the Games, has seen his profile soar in the 11 days since he won his gold. He's done the national television circuit, watched his social media presence explode and even received a custom gold medal made out of bacon after he wished for one on Twitter. Farrington, whose parents sold all of the cattle off their Idaho ranch to pay for her budding career when she was in high school, is set for appearances on "The Late Show with David Letterman" and "Live with Kelly and Michael."

Ross Powers remembers how quickly one's profile can change with an Olympic medal after he won his gold in halfpipe in the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. Powers remembered being amazed while on his post-Olympic tour that grandmothers would approach him to say they enjoyed watching him and Clark compete.

"Instead of just being known around the mountains, you're known all over the place," Powers told USA TODAY Sports.

Powers, now retired from riding, has helped more than 125 aspiring Olympians pay for their training and competitions through grants through the Ross Powers Foundation and his Level Field Fund. Deibold, who attended the same Stratton Mountain School in Vermont where Powers now coaches, was among them.

I think the Olympics can really help someone like Alex Deibold, someone out of one of those sports that supported as much, or funded anyway, by the industry. When someone like that does well in the Olympics, it can definitely make a difference," Powers said. "These guys have to get sponsors outside of the industry, and without an Olympic medal or a bunch of X Games medals, you're probably not going to get that."

Those are the sorts of things Deibold will realize when he gets home, when he joins other snowboarding medalists like Kotsenberg and Farrington and slopestyle gold medalist Jamie Anderson â?? the only American favorite to win gold â?? and Clark in riding the popularity spike the Olympics can provide.

For now, Deibold was thrilled to be able to share the biggest day of his career with his loved ones. His mother, Meredith, closed her eyes and tilted back her head, the rain landing on her face, as she realized he had won a medal.

His girlfriend, Ashley Berger, sobbed. She didn't find out until the wee hours of Tuesday morning that she would be allowed to change flights and stay in Sochi long enough to see him race after the competition was postponed because of weather. His sister Jillian, a college student in Massachusetts, beamed as the paint and glitter dripped off her homemade "Team Deibold" T-shirt.

Finally, after receiving his flower bouquet - and then handing them over a fence to Berger, a suitable replacement for missing Valentine's Day - he got to hug them all. Four years ago, he could only watch and help and watch others, such as American gold medalist Seth Wescott, live out an Olympic dream.

No one knew Deibold then, but when the next Olympics come around in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018, America will remember this classic story of wax tech turned Olympic medalist.

"It's been kind of nice not to have that spotlight and that pressure," Deibold said. "You look at Shaun White, and I'm sure people are gonna pick him apart and tear him limb from limb cause he didn't win. That pressure is pretty unbelievable. Hopefully I'll have to learn how to deal with it at some point.

"But so far it's been a pleasure to just kind of put all that stuff behind me and not worry about expectations that anyone else puts on me and worry about my own game."